Coin-controlled mechanism



F. W. STICE. COIN CONTROLLED MECHANISM. APPLIQAIION FILED NOV. 22, 1919.RENEWED MAR. 16, 1921. 1,396,385.

M M J m 1 m w a F. W. STICE. COIN CONTROLLED MECHANISM. APPLICATIONFILED NOV. 22, I919. RENEWED MAR. 16.192!- 1,396,385.

L 2. I Hm 3 8M .wp Mu W m g a v0 m 12 w 7 WW I J Z Q Ex w w 5 H I 6 HnLII}: I 2 II? Q I IIM IWII m I H E UNITED STATES FRED W. STICE, OF TAMA,

IOWA.

COIN-CONTROLLED MECHANISM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 8, 1921.

Original application filed June 16, 1919, Serial No. 304,486. Dividedand this application filed November 22, 1919, Serial No. 339,876.Renewed March 16, 1921.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, Fnno IV. Srron, a citizen of the United States,residing at Tama, in the county of Tama and State of Iowa, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Coin-Controlled Mechanisms, ofwhich the following is a specification.

This invention relates to vending machines and its object is to providea novel and simple construction and arrangement of parts whereby themachine will be inoperative to deliver goods unless a coin or tokenrepresenting the purchase price be inserted, the present applicationbeing a division of an application filed by me June 16, 1919, Serial No.304,486.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings and will behereinafter fully described, the novel features being subsequentlyparticularly pointed out in the claim.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal section of a vending machineembodying my invention, the parts being shown in the retracted or normalposition;

Fig. 2 is a similar view showing the ejector drawn forward so as toproject a card through the casing;

Fig. 3 is a transverse vertical section taken in the plane of the cointube;

Fi 4 is a horizontal section taken substantially on the line H of Fig.1;

Fig. 5 is a detail perspective view of a portion of the ejector slide, apart of the plunger being shown in dotted lines.

In carrying out my invention, I employ a housing or casin consisting ofa base plate 1 and vertical si e and end walls 2 connected by a topplate 3, the top plate being formed with a suitable opening to permitthe placing of cards within the housing and a cover 4: being provided toclose the said opening, as will be readily understood. In the base platenear the forward end of the same, I provide a discharge opening 5,through which the coins may drop into the coin box, it being understoodthat the base plate will be secured upon a table or pedestal or otherfixed support, and a coin box or other suitable receptacle will beprovided below the discharge opening 5 to collect the coins. Upon thebase plate within the housing, I secure a guide frame 6 consisting ofSerial No. 452,723.

side bars arranged in parallelism and having their rear ends connectedby a cross bar or stop 7. In the opposed inner faces of the side bars 6,I provide channels 8 which will receive longitudinal ribs or tongues 9upon the side edges of the ejector slide 10, the said slide beingthereby mounted upon the base for reciprocatory movement and being heldto the base by the engagement of the said ribs and channels, the inwardor rearward movement of the slide being limited by the contact of itsrear end with the stop 7, as clearly shown in Fig; 1. In the front endof the slide 10, I provide a central longitudinal notch or open-endedslot 11, and between the terminals of the said slot or notch, I providethe transverse slot or notch 12 which intersects the said slot 11 andwill normally register with the inner end of the coin tube 13 which issecured within the housin and has its upper end coincident with a coinslot 14 formed in one side wall of the housing. The intermediate portionof the coin tube is held against lateral movement by a bracket 15secured to the tube and upon the upper side of the adjacent side bar 6,so that the inner end of the tube will always be in the plane occupiedby the transverse notch or slot 12 when the e'ector slide is retracted.Upon one of the side bars 6, I provide a longitudinal open frame orguideway 16 and through the said open frame or guideway projects alateral arm or extension 17 projecting from one side of the plunger 18,the said plunger being equipped with a handle bar or pull rod 19extendin through the front side of the casing and fitting closely in theopening 20 provided therefor. The lateral guide arm 17 and the guideframe 16 are constructed with interengaging tongues and grooves, asindicated at 21, so that the plunger may reciprocate freely and will becaused to move in a rectilinear path. The plunger is normally heldretracted by a spring 22 having its rear end secured in any convenientmanner within the housing, as, for instance, to a pin 23 at the rear endof the base plate 1 and having its front end secured to the rear side ofthe lateral guide arm 17, as shown most clearly in Figs. 3 and 4. Themain body of the plunger is disposed in the central longitudinal planeof the housing and at its lower end is constructed with a tongue 24disposed within the slot 11 so as to play freely therein and normallybearing against the rear end wall of said slot under the influence ofthespring 22, so that theejector' slide willbe normally held in theposition shown in Fig. 1, with thetransverse notch or slot 12 in rear ofthe coin discharge opening 5 and in the plane of the coin tube. Theplunger is also constructed with a coin-receiving recess or seat 25 inone side immediately 1n advance of thesaid tongue 24 so that when a coinis deposited in the coin tube, it will gravitate through the said .tubeand will enter the recess or seat 25, resting uponfthe base plate 1 andwithin the notches 12. If the plunger be then drawn forward, the coinwill be held firmly against the front walls of the notches 12 by theforce exerted through the tongue 24 against the rear side of the coin,

' so that the ejectorslide will be drawn forward. If, however, theplunger be drawn forward without a coin bemg inserted, the

tongue 24 will merely rideforward through the slot 11 without impartingmovement to the ejector slide and, therefore, no card will be delivered.As soon as the end .of the card has been projected through the deliveryopening 26 in the front wall of the casing, as shown in Fig.2, the holdupon the plunger will be released, whereupon the spring 22 will contractand-withdraw the plunger so that its tongue 24 will bear against therear end wall of the slot 11 and release the coin, which will then dropthrough the discharge opening 5 to the coin box. e i

The cards, indicated at 27ers supported within a frame consisting offront and rear standards 28 and clelats2 9 secured to and extendingbetween said standards at the sides of the same. The standards areconnected at their upper endsby cross bars- 30 and to the rear standardsI secure a plate 31which constitutesa back rest and gage-for the cardsso that they may be piled evenly within the frame, as"will be readilyunderstood. A weight or follower 32 is placed upon the pile of cards sothat they will be causedto positively gravitate to the cleats 29. as thelowermost cards are successively withdrawn. As shown most clearly inFig. 3, the cards rest at their side edges upon the cleats 29 and areuncovered between the said cleats 7 sothat the ejector fingers 33arranged below the cards mayreadily engage thebottom card and projectthe same asthe ejector slide 10 is drawn forward. The fingers 33 arecurved upon their rear edges, as shown at 3%, and their points 35project slightly forward so that when the fingers are extendingupwardly, the points will readily take into the under side of thebottomcard and cause the same to move forward with the slide and ejector. Thefingers 331are carried by a plate 36 hingedto the upper sideof theejector slide 10 and held normally in the position shown in Fig. 1 by aspring 37 "secured to and extending between the rear slde of" the hingedplate at the upper edge of the same and the upper side of the ejectorslide 10, a stop pin or rest 38 being provided upon the slide to limitthe rearward movement. of the hinged plate under the influence of saidspring, as will be readily understood. As the ejector slide is drawnforward, the fingers 33 will be held in engagement with the bottom cardby the pin or rest 38, so that the card will be caused to move forwardwith the fingers and slide. Upon the rearward movement of the ejector,however, the curved edges 84 of the fingers will be in engagementwith'the bottom card and will cause the fingers to swing forwardlyagainst the tension of the spring 37 so that the ejector will have noeffect upon the cards during its inward or-rearward'movement. V

It is intended that care shall be observed in placing a stock of cardsin the machine so that all the cards in the pile.will be of the samethickness, and, across the front end of the card supporting frame, Iprovide a gage plate orbar 379 which is secured at its ends to'thefrontstandards 28. This gage plate'orbar is providedat its ends withslots 40 through which securing bolts or screws 41 are inserted into thestandards, the slots permitting a limited: verticaladj ustment of thegage plate so that it may be set according toxthe thickness of the cardsplaced in the machine and will permit only one card at a time to bedelivered, all the cards except the bottom .one being held againstwithdrawal by the plate, while the bottom card will be permitted topass'under the lower edge of the plate-and through the delivery opening261 As each card is withdrawn, the weight of'the remainingcards and thefollower 32 will cause the cards" to descend so that the lowermost oftlieremaining cards-will be in position to'be engaged by the ejectorlingers. r

From the foregoing description, taken in connection with the.accompanying drawings, it will be readilyunderstood that I have'providedan exceedingly simple machine wherebypersons desiring postcards mayobtain the: same without the services of a salesman, a single post cardbeing delivered with certaintyand rapidity after a coin has beeninserted in the machine and no card being deliveredunless a coin is in:serted. After a card has been withdrawn, the vmechanism automatically.and immediately returns 'to normal? positionso that. a second cardmayibe delivered'up'on the in-. sertion of a second coin. 'Theparts. arecompactly arranged. so that the machine will occupy but little spaceand, owing to its simplicity of construction it may be produced at aslight cost and will not be apt to get out of order. A coin is shown inposition at 42 in Fig. 2.

It will, of course, be understood that the machine may be used for thesale of postals, stamped or unstamped postcards, or other forms ofcards.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new is:

In a vending machine, the combination of a closed casing having acoin-discharge opening in its bottom, an ejector head resting on thebottom of the casing and having an open-bottom coin seat near one endand an open-ended notch extending across said seat and in communicationtherewith, a coin tube disposed laterally in the casing with its innerend adjacent and above the slide, a plunger arranged above the slide andprovided in one side with a recess to receive a coin from the coin tube,a lateral arm extending from the opposite side of the plunger, a guidein which said arm plays, a tongue depending from the plunger and playingin the said open-ended notch whereby to move across the coin seat whenno coin is deposited or to clamp the coin in said seat and actuate theslide when a coin is deposited, and means acting on the plunger to holdthe same and the slide normally retracted.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

FRED W. STICE. a s.]

